The Consellería do Mar paid 17,950 euros (VAT included) for an interview with its owner, Alfonso Villares, on the program Editorial Café from Telemiño, the local television station in Ourense. The interview was reproduced in the two newspapers of Grupo La Región, to which the channel belongs: the Ourense newspaper of the same name and Daily Atlanticbased in Vigo. In none of the three media was it reported that it was paid content.
The issuance took place on November 24 but the contract did not reach the Xunta’s transparency page until December 2. There it appears as a minor contract – awarded, therefore, by hand – for “Services” and with ordinary processing. On the object, with the title cut out, you can read “Editorial Coffee with Alfonso Villares in La Región, Atlanti.”
The 25-minute program can be found on YouTube under the title Alfonso Villares: “We have to look for more profitability in the product that is extracted from the sea”. In it, the presenter and the deputy director of Atlantic They ask the councilor questions such as: “In the 2025 budgets, the largest amount since 2010 is planned for the portfolio that you direct. What does that mean?” or “You were mayor for 16 years, now you have been a councilor for one and a half. What differences are there between one thing and another?” Until this Wednesday afternoon, it had registered a total of 22 views on the Telemiño channel and another 32 on the Atlantic.
A spokesperson for the Ministry has assured that it is “an initiative framed in the communication plan” in which “aspects such as territorial implementation” or the “need to influence a certain area” were assessed. Regarding the fact that it was not identified as paid content, he responded that he does not review the content published by the media. At the time of publishing this information, La Región had not responded to this editorial’s questions either.
In the Editorial Café program website Interviews appear with other councilors of the Xunta, such as that of Health, Antonio Gómez Caamaño; that of Emprego, José González or that of the Environment, Ángeles Vázquez. Among them are those of the General Secretary of Emigration, Antonio Rodríguez Miranda, the president of the public company Sogama, Javier Domínguez or the president of the Ourense employers’ association, Marisol Nóvoa. The last guest, so far, has been the president of the Ourense Deputation and the provincial PP, Luis Menor.
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